Moto G4 review: Lenovated

Performance

The Moto G4 is powered by a Snapdragon 617 chipset and comes with 2GB of RAM. The 617 is part of the older generation, you can mostly tell by the old Adreno 405 GPU. The CPU clock speed is lower compared to the chipset that replaces it - the 625.

Speaking of clock speed, there are two groups of four A53 cores - one runs at 1.5GHz and the other at 1.2GHz.

Anyway, from the time we spent with the Moto G4, we walked away with the impression of a very fast phone with a smooth UI. This is one of the benefits of Android without the extraneous maker skins.

The 5.5" 1080p segment is fairly popular and includes high-profile devices like the Xiaomi Redmi 3 and the Meizu m3 Note. We have tested Redmi 3 with both the Helio X10 chipset and the Snapdragon 650. The Meizu m3 note has Helio P10, which sits below the X10. The Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) packs an Exynos 7870, while the Oppo R7s uses an older Snapdragon 615 chipset.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  75051
• Oppo F1 Plus
  51299
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  49094
• Lenovo Moto G4
  46949
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  45474
• Meizu m3 note
  44898
• Oppo R7s
  35959

You can see the power of the A72 cores used in the the Redmi note 3 (Snapdragon 650) in the single-core test. They are about as twice as fast as the A53 core of the Moto phone.

For multicore performance, however, the eight A53 cores in the MediaTek version of the Redmi note 3 come out ahead. The eight cores of the Moto G4 are just about equal to the combined power of the six cores in the Snapdragon 650 (2x A72 + 4x A53).

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1573
• Oppo F1 Plus
  857
• Meizu m3 note
  807
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  745
• Lenovo Moto G4
  713

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  4537
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  4140
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  3570
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3242
• Oppo R7s
  3206
• Lenovo Moto G4
  3182
• Meizu m3 note
  3028

Moving over to the GPU, the Adreno 405 did fine in the 720p days, but it always struggled on 1080p. Games definitely won't run at the full resolution of G4's screen, but will have to upscale instead.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  9.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  7.9
• Oppo F1 Plus
  7
• Lenovo Moto G4
  6.8
• Oppo R7s
  6.2
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9.1
• Lenovo Moto G4
  4.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  3.9
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3.3
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  3.2
• Meizu m3 note
  2.5

The Adreno 510 is about twice as fast as the Adreno 405. We haven't tested the Adreno 506 inside the Snapdragon 625, but still, a newer chipset would have been a boon for gaming performance.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8.5
• Oppo F1 Plus
  7
• Lenovo Moto G4
  6.5
• Oppo R7s
  5.9
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  4.9

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9.1
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  7.2
• Lenovo Moto G4
  4.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  4
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3.3
• Meizu m3 note
  2.5

Basemark X shows that even the Helio X10 chipset (with a PowerVR G6200 GPU) is a bit faster.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14732
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8540
• Lenovo Moto G4
  6932
• Oppo F1 Plus
  6204
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  5383
• Oppo R7s
  5302
• Meizu m3 note
  4567

Basemark X (medium)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  23376
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  15359
• Oppo F1 Plus
  14843
• Lenovo Moto G4
  11860
• Meizu m3 note
  11604
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  11199
• Oppo R7s
  10637

The Lenovo Moto G4 is definitely fast enough for daily use and most apps will be happy with it. Some would have benefitted from the more powerful A72 cores used in newer chipsets, but it's really the games that take a hit. The Adreno 405 will deliver lower level of graphical effects than what you get from similarly priced 5.5" 1080p phones.